The Indian Premier League (IPL), is a Twenty20(T20) cricket league held annually in India, founded in 2007 by the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India), it started with 8 teams, now ten teams, featuring state or city based franchise names. It is the most expensive league and most watched cricket league in the world, it has exclusive window in the ICC future tours Programme, resulting is fewer international cricket tours during the IPL season. In 2022 the league’s brand value was estimated at US$11 billion (₹90,038 crore). As of 2024, there have been 17 seasons of the tournament, current champions are Kolkata Knight Riders their third title, most successful teams are Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians with 5 each
Cricket, a sport traditionally known for reliance on intuition and experience is witnessing a transformative shift with the rise of data analytics. This data-driven approach, spearheaded by the cricket data analyst, involves the collection and analysis of vast amounts of game data, encompassing player performance metrics, ball trajectories and even field positioning strategies. By leveraging tools like Python and some of its libraries, we can uncover hidden insights, empowering teams to make informed decisions on crucial aspects like player selection, batting and bowling tactics. This data-driven revolution is not only reshaping modern cricket strategies but also opening doors for innovative talent identification and performance optimization, propelling the game towards a new era of informed competition. In this project we will discuss the insights from data analysis.
Comprehensive Data Analysis of IPL data is an initiative to understand the IPL data collected over 17 seasons. Using simple extraction techniques we gather data, construct features and perform basic data analysis to understand how the game has evolved throughout the seasons, what does a winning team look like when compared to its peers.
The dataset consists of a .json format file, which is an open standard file format and data interchange format that uses human-readable text to stor and transmit data objects consisting of attribute-value pairs and arrays. All the work is performed with Python in Jupyter-lab environment. Jupyter-lab was picked as it is a web based interactive development environment for notebooks, code and data, this environment is best suited for data analysis. We then extract data and create features for data analysis, using the Python library Plotly we plot scatter and bar plots. We make use of Plotly as it is an open source graphing library which makes interactive, publication quality graphs, we will make use of scatter plots for easy readability and understanding insights.
The data consists of around 1095 match data, some matches are missing for Royal Challengers Bengaluru. Each match data consists of general information about the match like teams participating in the match, team starting 11, date, event, venue, outcome of the match, then there is inning wise over by over, ball by ball match score card. From each match data we extract the following information a) matches played, b) player name, c) innings batted, d) innings_bowled, e) matches_won, f) runs scored, g) balls played, h) batting average, i) batting strike rate, j) catches, k) run outs, l) balls bowled, m) runs given, n) wickets taken, o) bowliing average, p) bowling strike rate, q) bowling economy, r) four_scored, s) six_scored, t) four_given, u) six_given, v) scores above 30, w) strike rate for scores 30+, x) multiple wickets taken, y) man of matches, z) trophies won. There are multiple ways how we had to arrange data just for convenience of use, one was all time player wise data frame, another is season wise data frame, team wise season data frame, team wise all seasons data frame, player wise season stats, etc.,. We create three more features namely aa) Formula batter, ab) Formula bowler and ac) Formula fielder, these are based on features representing certain aspects of cricket(batting, bowling and fielding). Formula batter is based on fours scored + six scored + batting average + (scores above 30 * strike rate 30), Formula bowler is based on wickets taken + multi wickets + (wickets taken / matches played) and, Formula fielder is based on catches + run outs + man of match, these are used for sorting players to rank them in their discipline (batting, bowling and fielding). In this project we will analyse the data by plotting simple scatter plots, as they are the simplest to read and understand. Unlike some scatter plots where we can only observe (x, y) coordinate data, with Plotly we can include other features as well with ‘color’ and size we add two more dimensions to the plot creating a four dimension plots, these help to read and gain insights more definitively.
This is a dictionary for teams which a player has played for in the IPL
Here we look at plots for 5 year periods, 2010-2014, 2015-2019 and 2020-2024. There is no reason why we didnt include 2008 and 2009, its only for uniform periods, we will look at 2008 and 2009 later when we see compare winning year/s for a team. Like in future plots we will seperate batting, bowling and fielding plots to focus on each skill seperately and with in a skill we will look at different abilities of players like in batting we look for strike rates, scores above 30, total runs scored, boundaries scored., in bowling we look at the bowling strike rate, bowling economy, wickets taken, multiple wickets, boudaries given., in fielding we will look at catches and run outs.
The first feature we look at is 4s scored, during the tenure of 2010-14 V sehwag scored the most 4s 252 in 71 games, shikhar dhawan and rahul dravid scored around similar boundaries(214) in just 62 games, this number is impressive when we look at the years 2015-19 where there are no players who have scored close to 200 boundaries in as little as 62-65 games, this number is impressive when we look at the other players who played similar number of games but only managed to score 96(mk tiwari), 114(ab de villiers), 169(david warner). This number is only topped during the 2020_2024 session where again shikar dhawan is seen with an even impressive number of boundaries 244 in 63 games, SK yadav with 225 in 65 games, then kl rahul with 224 in 65 games, and Rituraj Gaikwad 217 in 66 games. shikar dhawan shows up again when we look at 2015-19 season where he tops the list with most boundaries 272 in 77 games, another interesting stat for this tenure is that Sunil Narine makes starts to show signs of an allrounder by making it to the list of batsmen in top 20 4s, where as shubman gill scored the most with 267 4s in 76 games during the 2020-24 season. Along with shikar dhawan, V kholi is the only other batsmen with 200+ 4s in all 3 tenures, but he played more games than S dhawan. When we see the overall numbers for the top 20 batsmen who scored 4s, for 2010_14 in 1300 innings 3794 4s were scored, in 2015_19 in 1216 innings 3602 4s were scored, 2020_24 in 1272 innings 3913 4s were scored., the numbers are very close but with time the total average 4s (4s/innings) have increased by 0.5 every 5 years.
The second feature we look at is 6s_scored, during the 2010_14 tenure we have an anomoly named CH gayle, he scored 183 6s in as little as 60 games, averaging 3/game, that number is twice as much as the second, in the second 5 years we have 5 players with 100 or more sixes, indicating the evolution of six hitting around this time, but again the top six hitter is chris gayle with 134 sixes in just 57 matches, close second is ab de villiers with 131 but in 66 games, from 2020-24 the six hitting seems to have spread more than individuals, also ch gayle and ab de villiers retired, there are still 5 players above 100. over all among the top 20 each tenure, 2010-14 had 1251 innings and 1510 sixes, 2014-19 had 1201 innings and 1689 sixes, 2020_24 had 1295 innings and 1731 sixes, we can see that 2015-19 were the most prolific tenure for six hitting,
Here we look at the scores_above_30 for the three tenures of 5 years, during 2010-14 session we suresh Raina and V kohli top the list with 57 and 53, but kohli has 10 games less, where as S Raina has a much better strike_rate, a total of 1323 innings batted and 824 times a score of 30+ was achieved, for 2015_19 we see V kohli scores 59 times 30+ in lesser innings than previous session and also a better strike rate, S raina drops to 41 times scores of 30+, MS dhoni makes an appearance again with similar numbers(39, 40) but much less strike rate(176, 148), an interesting observation is made for 66 matches played players, a bunch of players appear on the graph having played 66 games, of which ab de villiers has the most scores above 30 with 46 at a strike rate of 182, only H pandya has a better strike rate(186) but has only 18 scores of above 30 a total of 1244 innings the batsmen batted and 808 times scores of 30+ were achieved, which is an improvement from previous tenure, for the session 2020-24 we observe that shubman gill and V kohli top the list with 61 and 62, but here the strike rate for v kohli has dropped to 131, faf du plesis comes in third with 60 scores above 30, unlike 2015_19, we dont see v good strike rate to scores above 30 ratios, out of the total 1284 innings batted, 888 scores of 30+ are achieved, which again is an improvement from previous tenure, but overall strike rates have dropped.
Here we compare the strike_rate_30 for the three sessions, for the first 2010_14 tenure we have the usual suspects of S raina and C Gayle, where they have scored impressive number of runs at a higher strike rate than most, CH Gayle has a strike rate of 152 but when he scores 30+ the strike rate is 172, S Raina has a strike rate of 137 but 30+ scores strike rate is 147, there are a bunch of players where we see a spike in strike rates where scores of 30+ are achieved, Rohit shrma( 128, 146), ms dhoni(143, 176), david warner(137, 151), ABD (141, 182),there are 7 players above or at 2000 runs scored. For 2014_19, david warner and v kohli are ahead when runs_scored are seen, also kohli had improved his strike rate by 10-13 points, ABD has similar strike rate of previous tenure of 160 and 182 but has increased his total runs scored, making him stand out as an anomoly, rohit sharma's number also improved by few points, rishab pant has a strike rate of 137 overall but 175 when above 30 scores, which is a major bump. for 2020_24, faf du plesis stands out with the amount of runs scored with a high strike rate (2718, 140, 148), 400 more runs the second R Gaikwad, who has a strike rate of 133, and 144 when above 30 scores. Sanju Samson and Josh Butler are very similar here, 2200 runs with 143, 162 strike rate, 2200 with 140 and 155 strike rate respectively, but josh has played fewer games. there are more players with 2000+ runs than previous 5 years where only we get to see 3 players, here we have 7 similar to 2010_14 but with much better strike rates.
We look at multi_wickets taking bowlers, in the first iteration of 2010_14, we have an anamoly in the name of lasith Malinga, who has taken 101 wickets in 70 games with 34 times taking 2 or more wickets, with an outstanding economy of 6.00, he truely was an anomoly in these 5 years, then we see a grouping of players with 77-78 wickets, DW Steyn, Harbhajan singh, Vinay kumar and R Ashwin. the contrast comes when we see the number of multi wickets, 26, 23, 21, 19 respectively, except vinay kumar all have a decent economy of around 6, vinay kumar 7.97 economy. For the next 5 years we see two bowlers who have taken significant more wickets than others, YS Chahal and Bhuvineshwar Kumar. with 88 and 89 wickets each, the close second or third here is jasprit bumrah with 75, the three of them have an economy of 7 and 7.45, the most multi_wickets are taken by B Kumar with 28, there are another group around 70 wickets and another around 50 wickets. For 2020_24 session we see YS Chahal again as the leading wicket taker with 106 wickets, multi_wickets are 28 but wickets tally has increased by 20, with an economy of 7.45, two groups again with 80-90 wickets and 55-70 wickets are observed. We have an anomoly in the name of Jasprit Bumrah, he has taken 85 wickets in as little as 56 games, 20 matches less than the leading wicket taker and an bowling economy of 6.4, during this time more wickets have been taken than previous sessions 1460 wickets in 1243 innings bowled, where as 1226 wickets in 1166 innings_bowled for 2015_19, 1264 wickets in 1243 innings for 2010_14 season.
Here we look at the fours given by player for every 5 years, for 2010_14, the most boundaries are conceded by IK Pathan 213 in 70 matches who mostly bowls during the powerplay and death overs, a close second is DW Steyn who was also the second highest wiket taking bowler with an bowling economy of 6 we can say perhaps that most of the boundaries were conceded during the powerplay overs, we even see malinga inside top 10 with 178 boundaries, also at an economy of 6, perhaps most of the runs conceeded by Steyn and Mallinga are in the form of boundaries in the powerplay overs and in the death overs. During these 5 years we also see that Umesh yadav has given the most boundaries per match, 188 in 59 games or its Morne Morkel for 175 in 51 games. R ashwin and K Pollard have given the least boundaries in these 5 years having played 80 and 77 games, with 120 and 123 boundaries respectively. innings bowled 1181 and 3105 4s given During 2015_19, Bhuwaneshwar kumar has conceeded the most with 209 boundaries in 72 games, who also bowls mainly during the powerplay and death overs, for another 5 years perhaps the most boundaries per match are conceded by umesh yadav at 194 in 60 games, Ravindra jadeja and Y Chahal 106 and 116 in 71 and 69 games respectively have conceded the least boundies per match and Chahal was one of the leading wicket takers during this period of 5 years. innings bowled 1072 and 2828 4s given. During 2020_24, Another powerplay and death overs bowler has conceded the most boundaries TA Boult with 255 in 70 games, Arshdeep singh, Siraj and Mohd Shami are second with 202/3 boundaries in 62, 67 and 61 games. Rashid Khan and Y Chahal have conceded te least number of boundaries with 128 and 140 for 75 and 76 games. Another leg spinner who shows up is RV Bishnoi who conceded just 134 in 64 games. innings bowled 1159 and 3347 4s given. A clear trend was observed when it came to boundaries, Opening quicks who bowled in the powerplay and death overs conceded the most boundaries, where as spinners specially leg spinners faired best. One exception to this is Jasprit bumrah who conceded 144 in 55 innings, one of the fewest for the tenure.
Here we look at sixes given by bowlers, for 2010_14 we see a different trend compared to the stats on 4s given, here the runs given are dominated by spinners, out of the top 6 5 are spinners, with A Mishra giving the most 86 in 69 games, Pragyan Ojha and Piyush Chawla with 77 in 62 innings, then we have R Ashwin and Harbhajan singh with 70 and 64, The only quick bowler in the top 6 is Vinay kumar with 65 sixes given. 1181 innings bowled 1069 sixes given. For 2015_19, Y Chahal gives the most sixes 99, 19 more than the second bowler axar patel. piyush chawla, harbhajan singh, amit mishra, Sunil Narine all make the list with around 60 6s given. An interesting group of bowlers are seen given around 70 6s where all of them are quicks, imran tahir is also part of this group. Another interesting observation is R jadeja, having bowled in 71 innings, he has conceded only 68 sixes. 1173 innings bowled 1324 sixes given. For 2020_24, Y Chahal again is the most 6s given bowler with 105 in 76 innings, second is K Rabada with 92 in 62 innings, CV Varun with 91 in 69, Mohd Siraj 84 in 67 innings. This is unusual compared to previous two session, where only spinners were being hit for sixes, but here we see prime fast bowlers getting in top 4. From the plot it appears as though the amount of sixes given by top bowlers have increased. 1247 innings bowled 1535 sixes given. As indicated by the plots the upward trends of sixes given by top bowlers is true.
Here we look at the catches taken by fielders, for all 3 tenures we see wicket keepers dominate the top 5, only one player comes in top 3 SK Raina for the Session 2010_14. MS Dhoni tops the chart in each session, 15 years. Out fielders like V kohli, R Jadeja, Faf Du plesis, Mayank Agarwal, Axar Patel, Hooda, Riyan Parag, Shikar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, DJ Bravo, SK Yadav, H Pandya, K Pollard make the top 15. In the last 5 years Sanju Samson, KL Rahul and RR Pant have come close to MS Dhoni. 1370 matches played and 733 catches taken in 2010_14, 1342 matches played and 777 catches taken in 2015_19, 1333 matches played and 783 catches taken in 2020_24. There is an upward trend, making fielders more reliable at catching.
Here we look at run outs, except for 2010_14 where vinay kumar has 19 runouts, rest seem normal. with time runouts have reduced. 2010_14 had 740 runouts, 2015_19 had 341 runouts, 2020_24 had 351 runouts. For the last 10 years runouts are pretty normal. A matter of fact there is a downward trend in the runouts, indicating that runouts become more uncommon.
For 2010-14, man of the match was awarded to players who scored more runs at fairly quick run rate. We see likes of G Gambhir(11) who mostly scores at a strike rate 121, MK Hussey(11) strike rate of 117, but both have scored close to 42 times above 30 in 80 odd games, JH Kallis(8) strike rate of 106, again scores above 30 (41) in 72 innings. Then we also have likes of V Sehwag(8), SK Raina(8), MS Dhoni(8), KA Pollard(7), AB de Villiers(7), YK Pathan(7), DW Smith(7) who boost a strike rate of 140+. Two bowlers got MoM awards UT Yadav(4), Harbhajan Singh(3), Brad Hodge(5), DW Steyn(5), But the most MoM awards are won by CH Gayle(14), impact of CH Gayle can be seen in other plots as well, he was truely an outlier. For 2015-19, we see a change in approach, more runs are being scored at a quicker rate, the strike rates have gone up by 10 on an average, Batsmen are batting with an intent to score quick, No bowlers recieved man of the match awards during this time. Most MoM awards are won by impact players like AD Russell(11), AB de Villiers(11), DA Warner(10), RR Pant(6), HH Pndya(6). Runs scorers like V Kohli(7), RG Sharma(9), Rahane(5), SR Watson(7), JC Butler(5), SS Iyer(4) have also won MoM. U Yadav(4), SP Narine(5), Rashid Khan(7), are the outright bowlers who won MoM. For 2020-24, we see most of the MoM are won by openers, RD Gaikwad(11), KL Rahul(9), Shubman Gill(9), JC Butler(8), F du Plessis(6), S Dhawan(6), V Kohli(6). Impact Players have won the award as well, AB de Villiers(5) in 30 innings, SA Yadav(6), SV Samson(6), N Pooran(4). Bowlers and Bowling all rounders have managed to bag more MoM during these 5 season than rest of the periods combined, RA Jadeja(7), Rashid Khan(5), AR Patel(4), YS Chahal(5), TA Bolt(5), CV Varun(6), K Yadav(6), MP Stoinis(7) impact player. Also most wickets were taken during these 5 years, which was already deduced in previous plots.
Looking at top 5 batsmen in the team for the season, ST Jayasurya(514), Uthapa(310). ST Jayasurya when scored more than 30 the team won most of the games, the ones which team lost is where Jayasurya had played more dot balls percentage, The top 5 batsmen have had matches where dot_ball percentages for batsmen are on an average of 40% or more. If we see at the bowlers, dot_balls bowled and multiple wickets played an important role, if we look at A Nehra when there are 10+ dot balls, the team usually won the game. SM Pollock performance also played an important role, if he picked up wickets and the bowling eco is less than 7 the team usually won the game. DJ Bravo, if he picked up a wicket the team won the game irrespect of bowling_eco, if he went wicketless and the economy is 9+ the team lost all games of which he played. The team lacked players able to score runs quick and consistently in the middle order.
Chennai Super Kings, top 5 batsmen SK Raina(421), MSDhoni(414), PA Patel(302), JA Morkel(241), When they scored runs quick the team usually won, SK Raina with a strike rate of 150+ lead to csk winning the game, When MS Dhoni scored quick tuns above 20, the team usually won the game. JA Morkel was the standout bowler who when took multi wickets and had an economy of less than 8, won the match. L Balaji if he takes more than one wicket CSK wins despite of bowling_eco, if one wicket then eco needs to be below 8 for csk to register a win. Joginder Sharma with a wicket and bowling_eco under 7 helped csk win most of the games. Based on these when we look at MS Gony
Kolkata Knight Riders, top batsmen SC Ganguly(349), DJ Hussey(319), LR Shukla(163) all played 12 games but when we compare them with other team top 5 this is the lease runs so far, even the strike rate and dot ball percentages are not something to be happy about. For the bowlers the picture is not good either, AB Dinda(9), AB Agarkar(8), I Sharma(7), not a single bowler in double digit figure. By the looks of these numbers the team must be in the lower half og the table.
The team lost only 3 games in the season, Top batsmen SR Watson(472) runs, everytime he scored more than 40 the team won, GC Smith(441) runs only lost one game in 10 games when part of the starting 11, YK Pathan(435) runs, when scored 40+ runs had a strike rate of over 200, perhaps the first impact batsmen in the IPL from the domestic circuit atleast, SA Asnodkar(311) in 8 games, again just lost one game. There are 3 batsmen with 400+ runs and one with 300 runs in 8 games, clearly showcasing the batting strength of the team, the bowling unit is not far behind, Sohail Tanvir(22) wickets in 10 games, SK Warne(19), SR Watson(17), MM Patel(14), SK Trivedi(13). Multiple bowlers with 10+ and 15+ wickets, showcasing the bowling strength the team had, Hindsight no wonder they won the tournament.
Top batsmen, G Gambhir(534), V Sehwag(406), S Dhawan(340), The majority of runs have been scored by these 3 players but they did not score them at a very quick rate, other than V Sehwag, S Dhawan had the least SR among the three, one interesting thing to notice is the team lost the match when S Dhawan scored less than 10 runs, The team lacked an impact player similar to YK Pathan or DW Smith. Bowling VY Mahesh(15), MF Maharoof(15) in 9 games, GD McGrath(12), just like batting, the bowling unit did not pick many wickets consistently.
Batting, SE Marsh(616) in 10 games, KC Sangakkara(320), Yuvraj Singh(299), JR Hopes(221), DPMD Jayawardene(179), We can say by batting numbers that SE Marsh was leading the team scorecard, the second best batsmen has 50% less runs, Yuvraj singh was the teams impact player with 200+ strike rate. Even though KC Sangakkara had played just 9 games he had a strike_rate of more than 150+ consistently. Bowlers, S Sreesanth(19), PP Chawla(17), IK Pathan(14), IK Pathan had great bowling_eco of around 6, PP Chawla was a mix bag, as we have seen earlier through out the IPL leg spinners are expensive than most other bowlers, we see nothing different here as well. S Sreesanth had a healthy bowling_eco given he bowled in the powerplay and death overs. By numbers the team was second or third best at worse.
Batting, AC Gilchrist(436), RG Sharma(404), Y Venugopal Rao(288), HH Gibbs(166), The numbers do not look promising for Deccan Chargers, with only two batsmen with total_runs of 400+. Bowling, RP Singh(16), PP Ojha(10), Shahid Afridi(9), similar to batting not much was seen from the bowlers, the pretty average or sub par performance, bottom of the table with only two wins, no standout players during the season.
Batting, R Dravid(371), MV Boucher(225), JH Kallis(199), V Kohli(165), Not much to boost here from the batsmen when no one reaches 400 total_runs, Even the strike rates are nothing much to talk about, mid 130's. Bowling, Z Khan(14), P Kumar(11), D Steyn(10), Bowling is a bit better when compared to some of the other teams, but again not something to be happy with. Lower half of the table performance.
Batting, SP Narine(488), PD Salt(434), VR Iyer(370), SS Iyer(350), AD Russell(222). The runs scored were balanced among the batsmen, SP Narine had a strike rate of 200+ for 40+ scores which perfectly defines the impact opener a team needs, with 5 40+ scores he did the job effectively, even though the runs tappered down in the later half, the impact he had was substantial for the season. He had a eye for an eye partner in PD Salt who also had a strike rate of 200+ for 30+ scores, Both the openers did the job perfectly for the team, Then the roles of the Iyer's can be seen, with Strike rates ranging 140-210, played a support and attack role, complimenting the teams 3 and 4 perfectly. Then the finisher AD RUssell, even though the runs are not substantial but since he got to play 10-20 balls when ever the scores are 10+, he finished the game for the team with Strike rates of 150-200. Bowling, CV Varun(21), AD Russell(19), Harshit Rana(19), MA Starc(17), Shows where the team won the tournament, 4 bowlers with 15+ wickets, usually means the team finishes in the top half if not the top of the table. Even though SP Narine did not pick up many wickets, he did not give that many runs, apart from couple of games where he had an bowling_eco of 10, but that did not influence the outcome of the game.
Batting, RD Gaikwad(583), S Dube(396), DJ Mitchell(318), RA Jadeja(267), AM Rahane(242), Having looked at the total_runs scored by KKR, The top 5 batsmen in CSK have outscored them but again csk batsmen had played more games. But the strike rates are less (130-180) for RD Gaikwad, S Dube had a better strike rate around 180, DJ Mitchell had a strike rate of 120-160, 160 was in the later half of the season, Jadeja too had a lower strike rate of 130 but imporved on strike rate in the later half of the season to 150+. Bowling, TU Deshpande(16), Mustafizur Rahim(14) in 8, M Pathirana(11) in 5, RA Jadeja(8), We can see where the team was let down, the bowling unit did not perform at the level of batting, given the runs where not scored at a extremely quick rate, but they were scored and the bowlers couldnt pick up enough wickets to defend the runs or restrict the runs. Injuries to Pathirana, Mustafizur, DL Chahar also did not help the cause, or maybe it was the selection in case of mustafizur.
Batting, RG Sharma(417), Tilak Verma(416), SA Yadav(345) in 10, Ishan Kishan(320), Tim David(241). The batters managed to score decent amount of runs, Its a mid table performance as far as the total_runs scored.RG SHarma with scores of 40+ had a strike rate of 150-170, which is at par with the impact opener. Tilak Verma has strike rates ranging from (120-200), but he did not score many 40+ scores to leave an impact for the team, specially in winning causes. SA Yadav had only 4 scores of 40+ in 10 games, even though he manages to score quick but consistency was missing, for atleast scoring 30+ scores. Ishan Kishan also had an average season with the bat, he managed a better strike rate than normal buy not many 40+ scores, given these are the top 4 batsmen it would have helped the cause to be more consistent. The batting lineup had the right intent but failed in execution consistently. TH David is their finisher who boosts a strike rate of 200+ for scores of 30+, even though he was not consistent his intent matters since he has fewer deliveries to bat. Bowling, JJ Bumrah(20), PP Chawla(13), Coetzee(13), HH Pandya(11), The wicket taking ability was average but the bowling economy other than JJ Bumrah who had a ridiculous season in terms of amount of runs given, he had no company in the team as PP Chawla(8+), Coetzee(10+), HH Pandya(12+) did not manage to keep the leaking of runs economical. This is perhaps where the bowling unit as a whole failed, they couldnt manage to restrict the flow of runs.
Batting, R Parag(573), SV Samson(531), YBK Jaiswal(435), JC Buttler(359), We see an interesting case with Rajasthan royals, Top 4 batsmen have amulgamated a great sum of runs, but most of the runs came in the early half of the season, R parag was consistent throughout the season, a healthy strike rate in the early half but it dipped later. S Samson has 6 40+ scores, and rest are below 20, making him unconsistent, Strike rates are good for those scores. YBK Jaiswal and JC Buttler are similar cases here, they managed to score good amount of runs but the runs are concentrated in fewer innings. Bowling, Avesh Khan(20), YS Chahal(18), TA Boult(16), Sandeep Sharma(13) in 9, The amount of wickets look above average to top, Avesh khan had a average bowling_eco of 8.0+, YS Chahal also had a high bowling_eco, around 8-9, TA Boult also had bowling eco of 8, Sandeep Sharma had a better bowling_eco of around 7. The team did well for the first half of the tournament where they lost only one in 8, this is when the batsmen were playing better than the latter half of the season. In the second half the the team started to lose games as the top runs getter started to score less.
Batting, V Kohli(741), F du Plessis(438), RM Patidar(398), KD Karthik(326), adds up to a good amount of runs for a top team, V Kohli had a strike rate of 150+ for the season for scores above 30, which he consistently scored, F du Plessis had strike rates of 130+ to 160+ and scoring 20+ scores consistently, Patidar and Karthik were the impact finishers who boosted strike rates of 200+ for the season. Bowling, Mohammed Siraj(14), Yash Dayal(14), C Green(10), LH Ferguson(9) in 6, shows where the season went wrong for the team, not many wicket takers in the team to fight for the top 2 position in the season. C Green had decent games with good economy of around 7, but siraj and yash dayal had an economy of 8-9+ for the season, making them less effective in stopping the flow of run. Even if the team scored more runs, the bowlers couldnt defend or restrict the runs.
Batting, TM Head(567), Abhishek Sharma(484), H Klaasen(479), Nitish Kumar Reddy(303), AK Markram(220) in 10, This team had the best batting display for the tournament, when we look at the amount of rns and strike rates, 200+ for top 3 batters, 8, 7, 7 30+ scores as well making them fairly consistent. Bowling, T Natarajan(19), PJ Cummins(18), B Kumar(11), M Markande(8) in 6. The bowling unit lacked a third and 4th bowler to have a sting for the other team like the likes of RR or KKR had. Perhaps this is where the team lost the finals, despite having one of the best tournaments with the bat.
Batting, RR Pant(446), T stubbs(378), J Fraser-McGurk(330) in 8, Abishek Porel(327), The runs sum up to be for a mid table team, even the strike rates are not impressive except Fraser McGurk and Stubbs, he can be an impact batsmen in the next few season, Pant and Porel had strike rates of around 140-160 during the season. Bowling, KK Ahmed(17), Mukesh Kumar(17) in 9, Kuldeep Yadav(16), AR Patel(11). The wickets sum up to be of a top half team, with 3 bowlers having 15+ wickets while playing fewer games, Mukesh kumar picked up a wicket in every game. Despite having taking wickets not one bowler stands out with good bowling eco, all had few games where the bowling_eco was under 6, but majority of games the bowling_eco was 8+. They need more runs and better economical bowlers, they have impact batsmen and wicket taking bowlers, they need consistent run scorers and economical bowling unit.
Batting, Shashank Singh(354), P SImran Singth (334), JM Bairstow(298), SM Curran(270). As we can see there are no stand out run scorers, The sum of the top 4 batters is very low, perhaps the least in the tournament, Even strike rates are not something to boost about. Bowling, HV Patel(24), Arshdeep Singh(19), SM Curran(16), K Rabada(11) in 10, the bowling unit looks great, with the hight wicket taker and arshdeep was not far away. The team needs impact batsmen and consistent run scorers. Perhaps RCB and Punjab Kings shld combine to form the best 11.??
SK Raina Amalgamated 3333 runs till 2014, at a strike rate of around 130-140, which makes him a run scorer and not an impact batsmen. These runs helped the team reach multiple finals and win couple of trophies as well. Making him one of the best batsmen in the IPL. CH Gayle aggregated 2733 runs till 2014, unlike SK Raina we Gayle was not part of the first season and has played only 66 games, where as sk raina has played 114 games. Perhaps the first or among the first impact batsmen with total_runs to show, had a strike rate of around 150+, making him a pillar in any team, unfortunately never managed to lift the IPL trophy. V Kohli, following his teammate CH Gayle, Kohli too had a slow start in the ipl, with 400+ total runs in a season coming in his 4th stinct. But since then there are few season where he has dropped below 400 aggregrate. Strike rate is par at best, during these years, making him an anchor for the early part of his ipl. MS Dhoni has been consistent throughtout scoring 300+ runs each year till 2015, aggregate of 2615 runs till 2014, at middle order shows how important was MS Dhoni to the team. Had a strike rate of 130-150 throughout these seasons. RG SHarma, is an interesting case, He started with 400+ runs, at a above par strike rate of 140, but with time the strike rate dropped to 125-130 till 2014. Perhaps the most consistent run scorer after SK Raina in this period. Most prolific season in IPL came in 2013, which makes us wonder, will RG Sharma score 600+ in an ipl? RV Uthappa, amalgamated 2632 runs, with a mix bag of strike rates, either he scored at 115+ strike rate or 140+ strike rate, as the years added up the strike rates have improved indicating a change in the style of play. Managed to win the IPL in 2014 with kkr, in which scored 660 runs. AB de Villiers, 2009 was the breakout year where he managed 465 runs, 2070 runs in 88 matches, since 2011 the strike rate has seen an upward tragectory along with the total_runs scored in the season. By 2014 the strike rate jumped from 125+ to 155+. DA Warner, 1963 runs in 69 matches, We see an upward tragectory since he started the IPL. SA Watson, 2031 runs in 67 matches, he is an impact player, when ever he does well the team does well as he scores big at a quick rate.
DA Warner, total_runs during this period 2743 in 63 matches is some feat and to top it all won a title. This is the time when we saw big scores but quicker from the vetrans of the tournaments. V Kohli, total_runs during this period 2780 in 70 matches, during this time he was at the peak of his form where he scored 971 runs in one season with 4 centuries, he also started to score quicker than previous season. AB de Villiers, total_runs during these 60 innings 2338, this was the time when his striking had peaked, touching upper 170s for the entire seasons, he adapted to the role of finisher plus impact batsmen perfectly laying foundations for the future batters to follow. AD Russell, total_runs scored 1344 in 55 innings, not much but the runs are scored at 180+ strike rate. Like ABD he managed to fit in the role of a finisher and impact player for his team. AM Rahane 2165 in 73 matches, he is still the anchor/runs scorer role, the strike rate is still low at 120-130. S Dhawan 2361 in 77 innings, the averages and strike rates improved slightly, but still in run scorer/support role. Strike rates are around 130-135, which is better than 10 points from last 5 years. RG SHarma 1995 in 76 matches, Strike rate were par for 2014-15 but again dipped to 120 for the next 3 years, during this time MI managed to win 3 titles. RR Pant 1742 in 54 matches, strike rate of around 150 which is great given he bats in the middle order, a higher strike rate is desirable which was the case till 2018, after which the strike rate dipped. MS Dhoni 1817 in 78 matches, strike rate of 120-140, is alright but a higher strike rate is desirable, given he bats at lower order 5, 6, 7 the amount of runs scored indicate the team lacked a better middle and lower order batters. SK Raina 2043 in 78 matches, strike rate has dipped from 140 to 120-130 which is significant given the pace at which others have been batting, where others have improved sk raina seems like his ability to score quick has been reduced, indicating he was at the later end of his career.
F du Plessis, total runs 2718 in 74 innings, We can see that these are the best 5 seasons of F du Plessis, even the strike rate has increased by 20 points. One factor for strike rate can be, 7 games are played in bangalore for the team RCB, Chinnaswamy is known for flat tracks, fast outfield, dew and small boundaries. Shubman Gill, total runs 2717 in 76 matches, started his ipl career in 2018, has been improving each season. 2023 was his most prollific yet, something one might call an anamoly since he scored 890 runs, almost 100% more than previous season. perhaps he might never have such a big season, but still around 500 runs a season is very good. Also, last two seasons has seen a surge in the strike rates. RD Gaikwad, total runs 2380 in 66 matches, 2020 was the first season and since then he has been consistent scoring around 1800 runs in 3 seasons, at brisk strike rate of 135+. If he keeps performing the same way he might be one of ipl's most runs scorer. V kohli, total runs 2597 in 75 games, 16 years and still consistently scoring runs, 2020-22 the seasons were sub par, 2023 and 2024 he had the best 3rd and 2nd seasons, a higher strike rate indicates a change in the approach. KL Rahul, total runs 2712 in 65 games, perhaps the best run scorer in this period, the only problem is that KL rahul has not improved the rate at which he accumilates his runs, a strike rate of 130 for an opener does not leave an indent in the opposition, if he can improve his strike rate and score around 100 runs less, it will help the team given the middle order has a finisher. SV Samson, total runs 2210 in 76 games, Bats in the top order, Strike rates good but a few hundred runs would make him an impact batsmen, he is there about but needs few more runs to be recognized as an established impact batter. Over the years the numbers are improving, perhaps we see better numbers than we saw in these 5 years. SA Yadav, total runs 2050 in 65 games, him and sanju have similar numbers but the difference is SA Yadav was injured in two seasons of the ipl 2022 and 2024, yet he managed to get similar or better numbers, his numbers have been good since 2018, if he maintains these numbers or improves them then he will be a player to have in your middle order. N Pooran, total runs 1601 in 65 games, he comes in at 5 or 6 and finishes the innings, the strike rates been 160+ in the last two iterations which is great, perhaps if he gets more deliveries he can accumilate more runs. Ishan Kishan, total runs 1949 in 68 games, good numbers, even strike rate is decent at around 135-140, perhaps if he can increase the number of runs slightly by 100-200 and/or improve strike rate to 150, he will be some1 to watch out for in the coming seasons. S Dhawan, total runs 2190 in 63 games, the sum is good but strike rate is below par, perhaps in the twighlight of his career, as the numbers are dipping. Is/was a legend of the game , not sure if he has many years left, perhaps one or two seasons where we might see him as an uncapped player.
SL Malinga, Total wickets 119 in 83 games at less than 6 runs an over is a cheat code, these are outlier numbers in the torunament, safe to say none or one may replicate these numbers let alone improve on them. DW Steyn, Total wickets 89 in 83 games at 6 runs an over, are great numbers but again the strike rates were lower than what they are now. None the less one wicket a game at 6 runs an over is still impressive. R vinay Kumar, Total wickets 91 in 85 games at 8+ runs an over, wickets per game is similar to DW Steyn but is 2 runs more expensive. For that time 8+ is not a great economy but vinay kumar was a geniune wicket taker. A Mishra, Total wickets 102 in 86 games at 7+ runs an over is impressive, given leg spinners have been expensive in the game, to be able to be this close to SL Malinga is a mighty achievement. H Singh, Total wickets 92 in 96 games at 6.5 runs an over, these are good numbers for an orthodox spinner as there are more right hand batsmen who find it easy to dispatch right arm orthodox spinners easier than others. The numbers dipped for two years but picked up in 2013. R Ashwin, Total wickets 80 in 80 games at 6-6.5 runs an over are again similar numbers as H Singh, making them the two best orthodox spinners in the tournament. SP Narine, Total wickets 67 in 47 games at 6 runs an over, taking about best orthodox, SP Narine just walks into the room at picks up the award, the numbers are close to what SL Malinga has produced, we thought no.1 can come close to Malinga's number but we have a mystery orthodox spinner giving SL Malinga a run for his money. PP Chawla, Total wickets 98 in 98 games at 7.5 runs an over, again similar to A Mishra a bit expensive, but wicket taking ability is there. A typical leg spinner, where the wickets come but so do runs. PP Ojha, Total wickets 84 in 91 matches at 7 runs an over, first and only left arm orthodox spinner. Traditionally troubling the right hand batters since they take the ball away from the bat. Initially was great but started to slip or batsmen started to play him better, even the bowling economy started to increase, started with 6 runs an over, ended with 7-7.5 runs an over. DJ Bravo, Total wickets 79 wickets in 72 games at 7.5 runs an over, our first bowling all rounder, he had one ridiculous season where he bagged 32 wickets, 4 more than Malinga's best season. First all rounder(AShwin and Narine were not in the converstation yet) and second medium pacer, the list is dominated by spinners(6), 2 geniune quicks and lastly 2 medium pacers.
B Kumar, Total wickets 89 in 72 games at 7-7.5 runs an over is impressive, given the game had started to change infavor for the batsmen, these numbers are impressive. Started his ipl career in 2011, he has always come up with better numbers every season. YS Chahal, Total wickets 88 in 69 games at 7-8 runs an over is again pretty good numbers, specially for an leg spinner, who are known to give away runs. JJ Bumrah, Total wickets 75 in 64 games at 7-8 runs an over, again similar numbers to top 2, perhaps he can improve on his bowling_eco. MJ McCleanaghan, Total wickets 71 in 56 at 7-8 runs an over, again similar numbers to players above him, given after 3 years the numbers started to dip, but again he only played for 5 years. Imran Tahir, Total wickets 70 in 49 at 8 runs an over, similar numbers to the other leg spinner, YS Chahal, all bowlers have similar numbers. DJ Bravo, Total wickets 70 in 60 at 8+ runs an over, perhaps the runs scoring has increased and all bowlers are going for around 8 runs an over, given he is a bowling arounder, these are pretty good numbers. Sandeep Sharma, Total wickets 69 in 64 at 7+ runs an over, another medium pacer who has decent numbers for some1 who bowls in the power play and death overs, specially the bowling economy UT Yadav Total wickets 67 in 60 games at 8+ runs an over, a bit more expensive than other quicks, understandable since he played for kkr and the outfields are quick and tracks are flat. Harbhajan singh Total wickets 58 in 64 games, 7-8 runs an over, in the twighlight of his career and still gng at 7 runs an over where his peers are going at around 8 and 8+ runs an over is impressive. CH Morris Total wickets 55 in 45 games, 8+ runs an over. another medium fast bowler, during these 5 years there are more quicks than spinners, an exact opposite of the previous 5 years.
YS Chahal, Total wickets 105 in 76 games at 7runs an over for 2020-22, 2023 and 2024 7.8 and 8.8, 2024 was generally expensive for bowlers since they introduced super sub rule, making it bias for teams batting first to have an extra batsmen and going all out since ball one. YS Chahal is a legend in IPL for taking many wickets, even though he can be a tad bit expensive, also he is a leg spinner so they are usually expensive than other bowlers, but also he gets the wickets. HV Patel, total wickets 92 in 63 games at 8 runs an over, since last 10 years this is the norm, most of the bowlers are 7-8+runs an over, since he takes wickets he will be effective. Given the games is more bias towards batsmen now, if some1 gives bowling_eco of 8 which is the norm should be looked at for wickets, which we are great numbers for HV Patel. Also he matches the record for most wickets taken in a season of 32 by DJ Bravo. Rashid Khan, total wickets 94 in 65 games at 6 runs an over for 2020-22, which are outstanding numbers, in 2023 and 24 the bowling_eco is 8+, perhaps the batsmen have figured him out or we have more data now to read the bowler, other than the super sub role and the intent shown in 2024 season. K Rabada, total wickets 77 in 62 games at 8+ runs an over, not as effective as the top 3 bowlers, but decent numbers with slightly higher bowling_eco than what we expect from rabada. Also joins HV Patel and DJ Bravo with most wickets in a season(32). Mohammed Shami, total wickets 87 wickets in 61 games at 7.5 runs an over, started his IPL career in 2013 but never got going, injuries and lack of chances. Since 2019 he has not looked back, getting 100+ wickets since 2019 and was out of 2024 season. Perhaps him and Bumrah are on par with performances in ipl for Indian bowlers, but Shami is one run more expensive. JJ Bumrah, total wickets 85 in 55 games at 6.5 runs an over, we had mentioned earlier that Bumrah is a cheat code and we have another set of stats here, when the entire set of bowlers are giving 7+ 8+ runs an over, JJ Bumrah is at 6.5 runs and another ashtonishing stat is that for 2024 when the entire league saw a bump in bowling_eco of 8-8.5 jasprit is under six runs an over. 2 or 3 runs less per over and taking 1.5 wickets per game is outstanding, something which we observed for SL Malinga, but malinga did it when the game had not evolved as much as it is now for the batsmen. TA Boult, total wickets 83 in 70 games, at 7.5 runs an over, TA Boult is unique for the ability of picking up wickets in the powerplay, and also he is a tad bit less expensive than others. CV Varun, total wickets 82 in 69 games, at 7.5 runs an over, our first and only orthodox mystery spinner. given how the game has evolved and we see very few spinners in the top ten bowlers, its great to see a rigt arm orthodox to be successful with picking up wickets and being economical. Avesh Khan, Total wickets 72 in 53 games at 8.5+ runs an over, most expensive top bowler so far, but a wicket taker none the less, like most bowlers avesh khan too has seen a surge in his bowling economy in the past 2 years. Despite started his IPL journey in 2016, did not play in many games till 2021. Arshdeep Singh, Total wickets 73 in 62 games at 7.5 for 2020-22, then like most bowlers we see a surge in bowling economy by a run, 8.5+, a decent tally of wickets similar to K Rabada but a tad more expensive. Has the ability to swing the new ball, if he can put some breaks on the runs leakage there is immense potential with the new ball and death overs. So, just like last 5 years we again see 7 quick bowlers in top 10, surprisingly no all rounders this time, shows how much DJ Bravo meant for CSK, also no bowler in top 10 from CSK. Another interesting observation was, the bowling economy have gone up for most bowlers in the past 2 seasons. This change started as soon as the super sub/Impact player rule was introduced, this also reduced the likely hood of all rounders to feature in the top 10 of many stats. But to be fair there are hardly any all rounders in IPL who have left an impact with both bat and bowl for an extended period of time, the last two which come to mind are DJ Bravo and Albie Morkel, HH pandya can be included but he is more of an impact player with bat and bowl, these are all fast bowling all rounders who might bowl 1-4 overs and bat for 10-20 balls most of the time. There are many all rounders who have done great with the bat and ball like Kieran Pollard, SP Narine, Jadeja, Ashwin, KH Pandya, but we dont see them perform at the same rate as DJ Bravo. Perhaps DJ Bravo is an anamoly on his own and shld we reconsider critisizing the Impact player rule on its own for ruining the probablity of producing an all rounder from IPL, if we look at the past seasons who have performed in the roles of an all rounder, we see only two names RA Jadeja and HH Pandya, perhaps we might see R Ashwin and Rashid Khan in a similar role as SP Narine in the coming seasons. I am not sure where to stand with the Impact player rule tbh, we see SP Narine with the bat scoring 500+ runs for KKR, but again he has done similar numbers in other leagues and then we see SRH who still push all rounders like Nitish Reddy and Pat Cummins himself(captain). May be SRH can afford two all rounders in the team since the top 5 are high strike rate impact batsmen. There are arguments for both sides but perhaps only time and team combinations can decide if the Impact player rule was a hit or miss for teams and IPL.
Seeing how players from other team perform during winning teams ipl season/s.
Scores_above_30 Even though Mumbai Indians won 5 times, we dont see many names in the batting stats in the top 10 for scores above 30, only two, Rohit Sharma(48) and KA Pollard(44), there are two more players PA Patel(27), Q de Kock(32) but two seasons are played in different franchise, perhaps one reason is that these two have been part of all titles and other batsmen have not. Another reason is that the other players in top 10 have always performed well in the IPL, they are all the usual suspects, and no1 pops out. batting_strike_rate The highest strike rate during them years is for AD Russell(178), HH Pandya(167) from MI, scores of 30+(21), Keiran Pollard(150), AB de Villiers(156). Two finishers from MI with such high strike rates, also scores of 30+ for around 40% of the innings are outstanding numbers, perhaps these two were pivotal in them winning those titles. Perhaps with the inclusion of Impact player since last two years, we might see more players in the range of 150-200 with better numbers? Batting_strike_rate_30 When scores are 30+ for a player we see better performance from MI players, HH pandya tops the chart(216), AD Russell(214), KA Pollard(192), AB de Villiers(186), RG Sharma(153). Six_scored CH Gayle tops with 162, KA Pollard(124), AB de Villiers(104), RG Sharma(87), HH Pandya(83), DA Warner(96), MS Dhoni(88). We again see MI best batsmen in the top 5, and others are the usual suspects.
Bowling_eco THere are only two bowlers in the 20 highest bowling_eco who represented Mumbai Indians, MJ McClenaghan and SL Malinga both at around 7.5 runs per over. Which is not the worst thing since most of the bowlers are around 8 and 8.5. Wickets_taken We see three bowlers who represented MI in the top 10, SL Malinga(71), JJ Bumrah(75) and 7 runs an over and Harbhajan Singh(66) at 6.7 runs an over. Perhaps we will see these trios more like the batting trio. Six_given Again we have the three amigos SL Malinga(57), JJ Bumrah(48) and H Singh(55) which is in the bottom half of the top 20 most six's given. YS Chahal(85) and RA Jadeja(76) top the list. multi_wickets And we see the same three players in the top 10 again, JJ Bumrah(23), SL Malinga(20), H singh(20). The most is by DJ Bravo(24) and B Kumar(24). In batting and bowling we see three players each in the top 5 or top 7 in all or most of the stats.
scores_above_30 We see three MI batsmen in top 20 and 2 in top 10, RG Sharma(43), AT Rayudu(39) but two seasons are for csk, SA Yadav(30), these numbers are much fewer(98) than what four batsmen performed(120-130) when MI won batting_strike_rate Only one batsmen in top 20 is SA Yadav(132), but again this is before he peaked form, never the less unlike when mi won titles we saw players with 150+ strike rates, specially players who finished the game. strike_rate_30 We see two players who have played for MI, AT Rayudu(150) with 39 scores above 30, DR Smith(159) with 20 scores above 30, both players where part of the team for 2, 1 of the seasons mentioned here. Unlike when mi won we had 3-4 players, HH Pandya(215+), KA Pollard(192), RG Sharma(153). six_scored RG Sharma(77), AT Rayudu(85), when compared to MI winning seasons RG Sharma(87), KA Pollard(124), HH Pandya(88). We clearly see the problem at hand for MI in batting.
bowling_eco MJ McClenaghan(7.6) and Harbhajan Singh(7.1) are the only two bowlers from MI, its a good thing to be not in this list wickets_taken JJ Bumrah(58) in 53 games bowling_eco of 6.9, SL Malinga(38) in 24 games bowling_eco of 5.8, Harbhajan Singh(34) in 61 matches at 7.1, But when MI won the total wikcets taken in top 20 were three, SL Malinga(71), JJ Bumrah(75) and 7 runs an over and Harbhajan Singh(66) at 6.7 runs an over. More than 100% change in number of wickets taken six_given Harbhajan Singh(58), JJ Bumrah(43). Not concerning to be honest. multi_wickets Just like wickets_taken we only see SL Malinga(13) and JJ bummrah(18), but again fewer games were played. We can clearly see that there are drastic differences when MI won the titles vs MI didnt, there are fewer standout performances, perhaps one or two in batting and bowling. We can see a case for RG Sharma and JJ Bumrah being alright and we do not see the names of HH Pandya and Keiran Pollard as much, even SL malinga and Harbhajan Singhs stats dont match up to glory seasons.
Scores_above_30 One anamoly V Kohli(56), rest are grouped close, we see around 3 players in top 10 from CSK, AT Rayadu(37), F du Plessis(37), SK Raina(35), and the rest are the usual suspects, RG Sharma(38), S Dhawan(38), Shubman Gill(33), SA Yadav(35), CH Gayle(32). Since CSK won two trophies recently, we also see some young players like Shubman Gill, RD Gaikwad(31). Batting_strike_rate We have only two players in top 10 from CSK, SR Watson(144), MS Dhoni(141). If we compare with players of MI in MI winning season these numbers might look low, but again the highest strike rate during the 5 season is AD Russell(155) and YBK Jaiswal(154.7). Perhaps when CSK wins the totals, rate at which players scores is low. Strike_rate_30 When we look at player strike rates for scores above 30, we can see a surge of around 30 points from the normal batting strike rate, AD Russell(196), Ishan Kishan(178), MS Dhoni(176), CH Gayle(174.5), SR Watson(160). again two batsmen in top 10, one was an opener and the other is a finisher. Six_scored An interesting observation when we look at the players with most sixes when CSK won the title, we see the usual suspects CH Gayle(95) on top, AT Rayudu(82), MS Dhoni(74), F du Plessis(65) some are for RCB, SR Watson and SK Raina(61), RD Gaikwad(53). we see many CSK players in this top 20 list. Given the strike_rates are low for the period, is six hitting an important feature for winning the league.
bowling_eco SN Thakur(8.4), DJ Bravo(8), DL Chahar(7.34) not a great look for CSK but there are other bowlers with higher and/or similar bowling_eco. wickets_taken R Ashwin(65) some can be for Rajasthan Royals and Punjab Kings, RA Jadeja(52) at 7 runs an over, SN Thakur(44) are in top 10. DJ Bravo, Harbhajan singh and DL Chahar with 38 each are in the bottom end of the top 20. Unlike Mumbai Indians the distribution of wickets is among 6 bowlers and not 3/4. six_given R Ashwin(68), RA Jadeja(58), DJ Bravo(55), SN Thakur(50), H Singh(38), DL Chahar(34), there are 4 in top 8 which is a bit much even though they won, H singh and R ashwin gave more sixes for other teams. multi_wickets R Ashwin(19) is the only player for csk in top 10, but the numbers can be also for other teams. RA Jadeja(12) is eleventh. Unlike MI we have a mix bag here, perhaps CSK are involved in close games and also since the winning years are spread across 15 years unlike mi who have the winning years spread across 7 years, perhaps this is why we do not see many players in total_runs or wickets column since they might have retired or not part of the team.
scores_above_30 SK Raina(47), MS Dhoni(38), M Vijay(32) in 2 season for csk 2 for Kings XI Punjab, MEK Hussey(29) in 3 season. When CSK wins AT Rayadu(37), F du Plessis(37), SK Raina(35) , not much of a difference. batting_strike_rate SK Raina(133), MS Dhoni(135), are the only two players and the strike rates are pretty decent for the time. When csk won SR Watson(144), MS Dhoni(141), SK Raina(130), strike rates are slightly better. strike_rate_30 MS Doni(158), SK Raina(150), the two players when csk lost. When csk won MS Dhoni(176), SR Watson(160) there is a striking difference. six_scored MS Dhoni(85), SK Raina(82). When csk won, AT Rayudu(82), MS Dhoni(74), F du Plessis(65) some are for RCB, SR Watson and SK Raina(61), RD Gaikwad(53). which are a lot from multiple batters.
bowling_eco DJ Bravo(7.7), RA Jadeja(7.5), MM Sharma(7.6) are in the top 10 which is bad if you are trying to win. WHen csk won SN Thakur(8.4), DJ Bravo(8), DL Chahar(7.34), given SN Thakur and DL Chahar are recent numbers. wickets_taken DJ Bravo(90), R Ashwin(65), MM Sharma(70), A Nehra(60) but only two season for csk, R Ashwin(65) some can be for Rajasthan Royals and Punjab Kings, RA Jadeja(52) at 7 runs an over, SN Thakur(44) are in top 10. DJ Bravo, Harbhajan singh and DL Chahar with 38 each are in the bottom end of the top 20, 30 more wickets. six_given RA Jadeja(80), R Ashwin(71), DJ Bravo(64), A Nehra(53), MM Sharma(45). When csk won R Ashwin(68), RA Jadeja(58), DJ Bravo(55), SN Thakur(50), H Singh(38), DL Chahar(34), even though the sixes given are close but relative to others when csk lost Jadeja, Ashwin and Bravo are in top 5 which is not a good look. multi_wickets DJ Bravo(29), MM Sharma(19), R Ashwin(15), RA Jadeja(16), which is much more than when csk won, where only RA Jadeja(12) and Ashwin(19) were in the top 20 There are evident diffrences but not as direct as mumbai indians, which is a familiar story with csk, even the winning combination is weird where we dont see ask many wickets as other winning teams, or even the runs scored. CSK on a whole is an anamoly, its not the best team but somehow manage to win.
Scores_above_30 RV Uthapa(23), KD Karthik(20), G Gambhir(20), are from KKR but the top 5 are not from KKR, V Kohli(32), S Dhawan(30), AM Rahane(26), F du Plessis(25), RG Sharma(25) which are the usual suspects. Batting_strike_rate Abhishek Sharma(195), TM Head(185) from last season, one KKR Player PD Salt(174) also makes it to the list, the top 6 are from last season, Out of the rest there are no players from KKR. runs_scored RV uthapa(1065), KD Karthik(889), G Gambhir(925), represent KKR, GG and Uthapa have matches only for two seasons, and the rest who make the top 10 have 3 seasons worth of matches and hence more runs. six_scored Only KD Karthik(35) some are for RCB, makes in the top 20. One reason is the top batsmen for KKR are Uthapa and G gambhir who won the title in 2012 and 2014, since both are not pure batsmen who hit six often we dont see them, infact we dont see them much since the game played back then was different and it started to evolve, get quicker after 2014. Even with the strike rates, scores_above_30, we see few KKR players since the game has evolved. If we only see the last season we may include SP Narine who had an excellent season with the bat with 530 run scored at 170+ strike rate, misses out since we dont see similar numbers in other season from him.
bowling_eco AD Russell(9.3) most are 2024, Harshit Rana(8.45) 2024, MA Starc(9.5+) 2024, CV Varun(7.63) 2024, UT Yadav(7.5) 2012&14, PP Chawla(7) in 2014. For 2024 any bowling_economy around 8 is good, and around 7 is good for 2012/14. We see many bowlers from KKR, perhaps we see more bowlers from KKR in each feature, unlike the batting. wickets_taken SP Narine(62) with bowling_eco of 6, 20 more than second, PP Chawla(43) close to half are for KKR, UT Yadav(38), M Morkel(37), MA Starc(17), We see where and why KKR won 3 titles, its their bowling which won them 3 titles., Outstanding. six_given PP Chawla(52) some are for MI in 2024, SP Narine(40), MA Starc(29) some for RCB(2014), UT Yadav(29). There are 6 in the top 20. The highest number of six given 53 by R ashwin, lowest by harshit rana 22. multi_wickets SP Narime(14) highest, M Morkel(11), MA Starc(11) some for RCB, UT Yadav(10), PP Chawla(10) some for MI, Harshit Rana(8). It can be clearly seen where the team won the title, the bowling unit performed exceptionally well during those 3 seasons, most wickets by a team, most multi_wickets, SP Narine with 20 more wickets and at 6 runs an over is unbelievable. KKR and MI bowling unit plus MI finishers won them the titles. CSK is wierd, unable to point where and how they won 5 trophies.
Scores_above_30 SR Watson(9), YK Pathan(9), GC Smith(8), 3 in top 10, most are MS Dhoni(13), G Gambhir(13), SE Marsh(13). The 3 batsmen for RR are on the bottom half of the top 10. Batting_strike_rate YK Pathan(172), SR Watson(146.5), are in the top 20 batsmen for highest Strike_rate in RR, V Sehwag(177) has the best strike rate. Given its 2008 we see pretty good strike rates comparable to now or 5 years back. runs_scored Again the three amigos, YK pathan(435), SR Watson(472) and GC Smith(441) in the top 10,SE Marsh scored the most runs 616. six_scored SR watson(19), YK Pathan(25), again one opener and one finisher. Like MI, KKR we see a pattern here as well, three batsmen in top 10 runs scored, have two or three explosive batsmen with high strike rates relative to the peers, and an opener and a finisher combination.
bowling_eco SK warne(7.42), MM Patel(7.4), in the bottom half of top 20, which is great. Sohail Tanveer(5.6) the best bowling eco in the season. wickets_taken Sohail_tanveer(22), SK Warne(19), SR Watson(17), MM Patel(14), there are 4 in top 12, 2 in top 3, THats enough said, we see why they won. six_given SK Warne(19), MM Patel(12). As we seen earlier six_given does not mean much in the bigger picture, if the bowling_eco is good and wickets are taken, which we see is true for the bowlers in question here. multi_wickets SK Warne(6), Sohail Tanveer(6), SR Watson(5), MM Patel(5), instead of 2 or three bowlers with outstanding stats we see four for RR in 2008.
scores_above_30 HH Pandya(13), DJ Hooda(12), Shubman Gill(9), DA Miller(9), four in top 20, JC Butler had the most with 19, he also has the most total_runs with 863. Shubman Gill was the opener who in atleast 9 games gave the team a good start, HH Pandya, DJ Hooda and DA Miller are all middle order batsmen and finishers. batting_strike_rate DA Miller(138), DJ Hooda(133), HH Pandya(126) not great strike rates, given how these three are also their max 30+ scorers. runs_scored HH Pandya(487), DJ Hooda(451), DA Miller(481), Shubman Gill(483), if we remove the outlier of JC Butler(863), we see that 4 players in top 10 for the most runs is a great asset to have, also perhaps this is why we also see a dip in strike_rates for Pandya, Hooda and Miller, perhaps they were in situations where they needed to build or make an innings. six_scored DA Miller(23), DJ Hooda(18), not as many as other players but again the situation demands the player to perform accordingly. If the middle order are in the top 4 of the most runs scored by the team, perhaps it indicates a rebuild of innings and less likely for sixes to be scored.
bowling_eco Yash Dayal(8.3), Mohammed Shami(7.3), only two in the 20 worst bowling_eco for the season, which is a good stat to have. wickets_taken Mohammed Shami(20), Rashid Khan(19) at 6.43 economy, UT Yadav(16) at 6.66, a decent tally of wickets from 3 bowlers, These numbers are similar to MI where two bowlers take good amount of wickets and are also economical (Malinga, Bumrah and Harbhajan Singh). six_given Mohammed Shami(17), Rashid Khan(16), they are 16 and 17th in the list. multi_wickets Mohammed Shami(5), Rashid Khan(5), but again not many wickets were taken. This is an interesting case, 4 batsmen around 450+ runs and bowlers picked a wicket per game and are economical, perhaps the middle order rescueing the innings and scored enough runs for the bowlers to defend.
We see few stadiums where it really does not matter if a team bats first or second, stadiums which show no significant change in the playing nature or conditions are a) Arun Jaitley Stadium, b) Dubai International Cricket Stadium, c) Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium, d) M ChinnaSwamy. But there are few teams where batting second can be fruitful, a) Eden Gardens, b) Wankhede Stadium, c) Sawai Mansingh Stadium and finally M Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk where batting first ended up with more victories than batting second.
When we plot top 20 batsmen for 2008 we see one Rahul Dravid(371- total runs and 8- scores above 30), for strike rates we observe LRL Taylor(4) and Mark Boucher(10) who have not played the full quota of games(14). When we have a look at the season winning team Rajasthan Royals we see a clear gap in the performances, 4 players in scores above 30, 4 players in top 20 total runs scored, two pplayers with strike rates above 160 with 15 innings, two batsmen in top 5 for maximum number of sixes.
When we look at the bowlers for RCB, two bowlers in top 5 worst bowling economy, two bowlers 14th and 19th in the most wickets taken list, one bowler in top 5 for most sixes given for the season and one bowler with 4 times 2 or more wickets taken in a match, which seems good but again only 11 wickets were picked up by the bowler, making the bowler go wicketless in some of the innings he bowled(11). FOr RR, three bowlers in top 11 worst bowling economy, Five bowlers in top 15 most wickets for the season(1, 3, 6, 12, 15), three bowlers in most sixes given list and five bowlers who have taken multiple wickets in a game, for RR since there are five bowlers with multiple wickets even if someone is wicketless another bowler is picking them up.
The story continues for RCB in 2009, only one batsmen featuring in the total runs for the season and at maximum two in other observed stats. LRPL Taylor scores above 30 (6 in 11 innings), Runs scored LRPL Taylor 280, Rahul Dravid 271 runs, Strike rate for scores above 30 Rahul Dravid 133, LRPL Taylor 132.7, Six scored LRPL Taylor 15. Winning team Deccan Chargers, Five batsmen in top 20 for scores above 30, Four Batsmen in top 20 of Total runs scored, Four batsmen in top 20 of Strike Rate for scores above 30, Five batsmen in top 20 of Most sixes scored topping the list AC Gilchrist 29.
For RCB, Three bowlers in top 10 of worst bowling economy for the season, two bowlers A Kumble(21), P Kumar(13) in wickets taken for the season, four bowlers in top 20 most sixes given by a bowler, Three with 4 or more time 1+ wickets, the bowling unit performed much better than the batting side of the team, Anil Kumble was the 2nd highest wicket taker for the season. FOr Deccan Chargers, One bowler RG Sharma in the bottom half of the worst bowling economy for the season, two bowlers in top 10 of the most wickets taken, hightest RP Singh (23), Only one bowler in most sixes given in the season, three bowlers with 1+ wickets (multi wickets). We can see how much better the teams bowling unit did if we compare with RCB, all stats are better, fyi these two were the finalist for the season.
For RCB, two batsmen in top 20 of scores above 30, three batsmen with most runs for the season (total ~= 1250), JH Kallis 572, 2nd in the list, two batsmen in top 20 for strike rate 30, Three batters in top 20 of most sixes. In the last 3 season these are the best numbers we saw from the batting unit of the team. FOr CSK, five batsmen in top 20 of scores above 30, five batsmen in most runs scored for the season (total ~= 1950), Three batsmen with strike rates above 150 for 30+ scores, three batsmen in top 5 most six scored for the season. Even though RCB have performed much better than previous two seasons but they have yet again fallen short when compared to the winners.
For RCb, three bowlers in the top 10 worst bowling economy, four bowlers in top 15 of the most wickets for the season (total = 61), four bowlers in top 10 most sixes given, one bowler with 4 multi wickets taken, the numbers suggest the team has improved their bowling numbers when compared to previous season. For CSK, two bowlers in top 10 worst bowling economy, four bowlers in top 20 most wickets taken (total = 54), five bowlers in top 20 most six given in the season, 5 bowlers with 3 or more 1+ wickets in a match. We see that the bowling unit of RCB was better but the lack of runs scored by their top batsmen resulted in another season without the title, we can look at runs scored per wickets taken for each team. 1250/61 for rcb and 1950/54.
For RCB, only one batsmen who is in top 20 of scores of above 30, three players in top 20 most runs scored for the season, two batsmen in top 10 best strike rates for scores above 30, three batsmen in top 20 six scored by a player. For KKR, one player in top 5 scores above 30, RV Uthappa(14) in 16 innings at 137 strike rate, two batsmen in top 20 of total runs scored, highest runs scorer for the season was RV Uthappa, three batsmen in top 20 for highest strike rates for scores above 30, two batsmen in top 20 for most six scored.
For RCB, two bowlers in top 20 worst bowling eco, but the bowling economy is 7 or low which is good, 3 bowlers (total - 42) in the top 20 but lower half for the season, 2 bowlers are in the list of most six given for the season, two bowlers with 6 multi wickets taken. FOr KKR, two bowlers in the worst bowling economy but again it was 7.5 or less, three bowlers (total- 47) in top 20 wickets taken Sunil Narine (21) 2nd most wickets taken, four bowlers in lower half of most six given, three bowlers with multi wickets in the season. The numbers are not far from the winning team for the season, but again the best team for the season was Kings XI Punjab who topped the table with 22 points, KKR were second with 18, 8 points better than RCB.
For RCB, three players in top 20 for scores above 30, three batsmen in top 6 (total ~= 1500), two batsmen with 170+ strike rate for scores above 30, three batsmen in top half of most six scored in the season For MI, four batsmen in top 20, 3 in top 5 for most scores above 30, four batsmen in top 20 strike rates for scores above 30, four batsmen in sixes scored for the season
For RCB, three bowlers in the top 20, two in bottom half of the worst bowling economy, four bowlers in top 10 most wickets taken, two bowlers in most six given, Y Chahal 28, 6 more than 2nd, four bowlers with multi wickets in top 20. For MI, two bowlers in bottom half of most expensive bowling economy, three in top 10 most wickets for the season, two bowlers in bottom half of 20 most six given for the season, three bowlers in top 20 multi wickets. The numbers are very close, one reason which we can see if we look at the points table is that the tournament was very close as only two points seperated 2nd and 6th, 3 teams with 16 points each qualified with csk 18 (top of the table), making this the most contested season.
For RCB, Three batsmen in top 20 for most scores above 30, V Kohli top of the list with 20, Three batsmen in most runs for the season, V Kohli top of the list with 973, Five Batsmen in top 20 for best strike rates for scores above 30, three above 180, four batsmen in top 20 most sixes scored for the season, AB de Villiers(37), V Kohli(38) top the list. FOr SRH, Three batsmen in top 20 for most scores above 30, two batsmen in top 5 most runs scored, D Warner was second to Kohli with 848 runs, two batsmen with 155+ strike rates for scores above 30, two batsmen in top 20 of most sixes scored for the season, D Warner 3rd most with 31.
For RCB, 4 bowlers in top 20 worst bowling strike rate, but the more consistent bowlers had an economy of 7.5, three bowlers in top 20 of the most wickets taken for the season, Y Chahal and S Watson in top 3 with 21 and 20, two bowlers in top 10 most sixes given by a bowler for the season, three bowlers with multi wickets for the season. FOr SRH, three bowlers in the lower half of around 7.7 or below for bowling economy, Four Bowlers in wickets taken (total = 66) with B Kumar top of the list with 23, Three bowlers with most sixes given in the season, Three bowlers with multi wickets for the team. The batting team amalgamated a lot of runs for RCB about 2000 among three batsmen, but perhaps the amount of wickets taken was low, only 41 with two bowlers, where as 66 for SRH, perhaps this is where the amount of runs caught to lack of wickets. So far, this was perhaps the best RCB had played and not won the title.
For RCB, Three batsmen in top 20 for scores above 30, three batsmen in top 20 of most runs scored for the season (total ~= 1400), only one batsmen in top 20 of strike rates for socres above 30, only one batsmen in top 20 for six scored. For MI, Six batsmen in top 20 for scores above 30, three batsmen in top 10 for total runs scored (total ~= 1500), four batsmen in top 20 for strike rate for scores above 30, two batsmen at 230+ strike rate, five batsmen with 20+ six scored in top 20.
For RCB, one bowler in top 20 worst bowling economy, two bowlers in top 20 wickets taken for the season (total = 36), two bowlers in top 20 six given for the season, two bowlers in top 20 multi wickets taken. For MI, three bowlers in top 20 worst bowling economy for the season, three bowlers in top 20 wickets taken for the season, 2 in top three, four bowlers in most sixes given for the season, four bowlers in most multi wickets for the season. We see that both batting and bowling units of MI performed much better than RCB.
From the insights we can see that there are few patterns which have occured during the 17 years of IPL. Season winning team comprises of particular types of match winners, when we observed Mumbai Indians, Kolkatta Knight riders and Rajasthan Royals, we can identify standout players for specific team in their title winning season/seasons. We can clearly observe differences in the number of runs scored, wickets taken, strike rates, boundaries scored, bowling economy, scores above 30, also the number of players in top 10 best players for the season involve more players from the winning team. But with Chennai Super Kings things are different, in some stats we see slight difference like batting strike rates, then again there is not much difference when wickets taken and boundaries given are observed, even when the team wins we do not see many players to be a part of the top ten players like when we see for Mumbai Indians, Kolkatta Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals and Gujarat Titans. The approach for winning is different for Chennai Super Kings, they have relied heavily on the middle order and all rounders, DJ Bravo, SK Raina, RA Jadeja, MS Dhoni and RA Ashwin is the only specialist bowler we see from the bowling unit. In case of Mumbai Indians, Kolkata Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals the approach is simpler, we have top order batsmen who make runs, middle order finishers who make the game buy scoring quick runs and two or three bowlers who are always in the wickets with low bowling economy. When we observe IPL season accross time, we come across a shift in paradigm or the way the format was, has and will be played in the past and future. When the IPL started in 2008, not much of twenty 20 cricket was played specially in the sub continent, we can see the numbers for the season when compared to today 17 years later are pretty ordinary numbers, strike rates of around 120+ with maximum at around 150, bowlers picking up more wickets, lower number of boundaries, etc.,. these meant the game was played at a quicker pace than the ODI(50 over) format. At around 2014 the stats suggest there is an increase in the amount of runs scored by teams and rate at which the runs are being scored, we see a rise in batting strike rates and bowling economy, wickets taken are at constant with previous times, catches have increased and run outs have decreased, pointing at the change in fitness levels and catching capabilities of a player. Multiple conclusions can be drawn with the rise of batting strike rates and bowling economy, one can be due to change in the approach by players, players have started to show intent to score runs quickly, another is the boundaries are smaller, perhaps the pitch is more suitable for batting, presence of dew is another factor, addition of rules which help batters like free hit. From, 2023 we see another rise in the strike rates and bowling economy, this was due to the introduction of impact player substitution. This gave freedom to the batsmen who had strike rates of around 130, to strike at around 140-150 as now the game is played with 12 players and not 11 like before, this makes the team to have an extra batsmen or bowler on standby if batsmen get dismissed early. When we look at the bowlers through out this time, we see how spinners played an important role in the first 6 years. Seven out of 10 top wicket takers were spinners with less than 7 runs an over, from 2015-2020 we saw more medium quicks and fast bowlers in top 10, seven to be precise, the three spinners in the top 10 also saw increase in bowling economy to around 7.5-8, from 2020-2024 we see the same trend of seven fast bowlers in top 10. If the impact player rule stays for another 3 years we might see more high scoring matches, bowling economy touching 9, batting strike rates above 160 will be normal. We can also have a look at two more things for future projects, we can have a look at why some teams have not won the IPL yet, compare the team with other teams for the season, importance of venue in the game, venue wise total runs, wickets, batting first results etc.